About Diwa

Mission

DIWA Party-list aims to protect workers' rights and promote workers' welfare, provide opportunities for workers' growth and development, and pave the way for a just, humane, and free society.

Vision

DIWA Party-list envisions every Filipino worker to live with dignity in a democratic and just society.

Democratic Independent Workers’ Association (DIWA) Party-list began in October 21, 2003 as a volunteer organization (NGO) that sought to address the legal concerns of laborers from abuses in the workplace. DIWA registered as a party-list in February 2007 and continued to take measures that ensured employees’ rights are protected. Its early beginnings and basic principles heralded DIWA Party-list to what it is now: an organization of independent workers and professionals that stands firm for the cause of itinerant workers, professionals, security guards, OFWs, seafarers, farmers and retired laborers, etc. whose causes have not been protected by organized labor groups and unions, and whose concerns and problems have not been effectively and directly espoused and defended.

Our Representative to the 16th Congress of the Philippines

REP. EMMELINE Y. AGLIPAY-VILLARDIWA Party-list

A passionate lawyer and a determined advocate, Emmeline Aglipay, or Em was one of the youngest recipients of The Outstanding Young Men or TOYM, when she received the prestigious award in 2012 for Public Service for devoting her life to community development and for the successful and sustainable livelihood projects that she has implemented as a representative of DIWA Party-list during her first term in Congress.

Receiving the TOYM award highlighted the numerous awards and academic honors she has already received. She graduated magna cum laude in 2002 with a degree in A.B. Economics from De La Salle University. In the same year, she received the Most Outstanding Student Leader Award, the Brother Gabriel Connon Award for the Most Outstanding Graduating Student, and was recognized as one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines by the Commission on Higher Education and the RFM Foundation. Em subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines where she was a member of the Order of the Purple Feather Honor Society and ultimately placed among the top 20 students of the Class of 2006.

After passing the Bar Examinations, Em joined the SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, one of the biggest and most prestigious law firms in the country. She later became a key figure in the Democratic Independent Workers’ Association or DIWA and eventually became DIWA’s representative in Congress in 2010.

Now in her second term, Em continues to excel – crafting measures aimed to promote and advance the economic welfare and interests of the Filipino worker especially those whose causes have not been protected by organized labor groups and unions. Among the measures she authored were: The Kasambahay Law, The Magna Carta for Informal Sector Workers, The Magna Carta of Fillipino Seafarers, and The Act to Strengthen Security of Tenure.

Em has always offered herself to raise the Filipino pride and dignity. Never shunning the opportunity to move boulders, inspire others, and become a catalyst for a genuine sense of change, Em Aglipay is clearly a cut above the rest.